Members' Musings
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- Written by Rob Kraft
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Initiate the First Meeting in Public Spaces: To establish a sense of familiarity and mutual trust, it is advisable to organize the initial gaming session in public places such as local game stores, libraries, or community centers. These locations provide a neutral and safer environment for everyone involved.
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Get to Know Each Other: During this first meeting, take the opportunity to get acquainted with your fellow adventurers. Engage in conversations about interests, backgrounds, and shared hobbies beyond gaming. This initial interaction will help build rapport and give you a better sense of who you'll be inviting into your personal space.
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Gauge Compatibility: Role Playing games are collaborative games that thrive on teamwork and cooperation. Before progressing to private sessions, observe how well the group dynamics work during the initial meetup. Assess whether everyone shares similar gaming preferences, communication styles, and overall compatibility to ensure a smooth and enjoyable gaming experience.
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Trust Your Instincts: Intuition plays a significant role in personal safety. If you have any reservations about an individual or group, trust your instincts and proceed with caution. It is better to prioritize your well-being and seek alternative gaming opportunities than to compromise your safety.
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- Written by Stephanie Hurd
I’ve always found that every character I’ve played has contained an aspect of myself. Little pieces of the best and worst parts of me and things maybe I wasn’t even aware I was imparting on the character until long after the fact. One of the great things about gaming is that we can use the game world as a space to explore ourselves and our interactions with others without the pressure of real life.
In June, the LGBTQA+ community celebrates Pride. As a member of the community myself I think back fondly on my early gaming days. My characters reflected a lot of the things I had questions about or wished I could see in myself. As my friendships developed, I got more comfortable with being my full self everywhere rather than just at the game table.
It’s good to remember that gaming is a shared experience. Whenever we grab some dice, gather at a table, and crack a book to begin a session we embark on a journey together. We’ll grow and learn and spin a tale of epic highs and lows. Every person brings something unique to the game and it would not be the same without them.
RPGKC is all about bringing people to the table and helping people tell those stories. Inclusivity and acceptance of everyone, no matter our differences, are built into our organization. We support the LGBTQA+ community in June and the rest of the year. On behalf of the RPGKC leadership, we hope you can all play with pride!
—Stephanie Hurd, Guildmaster of RPGKC
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- Written by Stephanie Hurd
The Role-players Guild of Kansas City was created to bring people together in a shared environment where we all can be heard, be creative, and have fun. There is no space at our table or in our guild for descrimination of any kind. While I cannot speak for everyone, I do speak for the guild leadership when I say racial discrimination and brutality have got to stop.
We have felt the call to action and we support initiatives to combat racism, bigotry and injustice. After inward reflection and reviewing our bylaws, we realized that the guild has long overlooked creating rules of conduct for our members. We will be taking action at our next guild meeting to vote and amend our bylaws with a member code of conduct. This code of conduct will extend to any events and shared spaces hosted by RPGKC along with our existing anti-harassment policy.
We play games for many reasons but I feel, at the core, we play to make a connection with others, to create new experiences and to feel like our actions can have an impact. Those things are also very real and possible in our own world right now. The guild leadership and I encourage you all to read, research, lend a helping hand, donate, and most importantly listen. Listen to the voices of those who have been silenced and pushed aside for far to long. Our actions, collectively, can change this world, our world, for everyone. We can be better and we must be better.
This means we can no longer be passive in our actions and interactions. It will likely involve uncomfortable conversations with our tablemates, friends and family members. It will surely involve taking time to reflect on and improve on our own actions and biases. We may need to rethink elements of our games, narratively and structurally, and whether they are reinforcing outdated stereotypes, tropes, and bigoted ideas. We have to be more aware of how our words and actions, in and out of character, can impact our fellow players and those around us. To this end, we ask that you keep this concept in mind “No one should ever be made to feel unsafe, unseen, or unheard.”
As stated before, we want to keep RPGKC out of politics as much as possible. However, we feel racism, discrimination, and injustice are not political issues but important social issues that affect everyone. We felt it was important to make our thoughts and our future actions known. This will likely lead to discussions and debates. We just ask that everyone please be respectful and civil with each other. That’s really what it all boils down to in the end. Happy rolls, folks.
—Stephanie Hurd, Guildmaster of RPGKC
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- Written by Wade Tripp
Welcome, ye minions, to the first (and very messy) blog of the RPGKC Overlord!
For those who don't know me, I am Wade Gregory Tripp, the person running late all the time to Game Day which I am supposed to be organized.
I had hopes for a stable location (such as the old Riverside chess location that had 40+ people each meeting) without favoring any one of the wonderful stores that have hosted us in the past. Stil...l if you know a good place that might be nice for a gameday, let me know.
There are several other issues that I will work on (and a few more planned).
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- Written by David Berg
If you’ve been a member for a while, you may have noticed that we stopped mailing and handing out membership cards. In this day and age of computer technology, it seemed old fashioned to make people wait on new cards or the replacement ones that they often needed.
Well, all that has changed for the better. We now provide instant access to these precious documents, so you no longer have to track them down. You can even pull them up on your phone when going to one of our sister conventions and prove your membership status without having to dig through a wallet full of other cards.
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- Written by Beth Perrin
Hello and welcome to the inaugural post of the RPGKC Members blog! My reasons for writing this post are twofold: getting the blog rolling, and recruiting for a special committee. Read on for the details!
